Coping with Crisis: Europe's Challenges and Strategies

MZES Postdoc Conference 2013 organized by Dr. Jale Tosun, Dr. Anne Wetzel, Dr. Galina Zapryanova

Since 2008 the European Union (EU) has experienced an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, which has persistently called for swift and effective policy responses and institutional changes. More generally, the crisis has had three types of implications for the EU as a collective actor. First, the crisis has triggered events of policy and institutional change. Second, these events of policy and institutional change have had an impact on how domestic actors perceive of the EU and its democratic legitimacy. Third, the EU’s interactions with external actors at the international level have been affected by the crisis. This workshop brings together both senior and rising junior scholars of European integration, whose research contributes to an improved theoretical and empirical understanding of how the economic crisis has affected EU policies and institutions, their perceptions by citizens and domestic actors, and the EU’s role in the international arena.

Topics and contributors:

The EU in Crisis: Advancing the Debate
Jale Tosun, Anne Wetzel and Galina Zapryanova (MZES, University of Mannheim)

Postfunctionalism and the Euro-Crisis
Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

From Networks to Hierarchies? Strategic Behaviour and Crisis-Driven Change in the Regulation and Governance of the European Financial and Economic System
Martijn Groenleer (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)

The Role of the European Commission in the EU’s Response to the Financial Crisis
Michael W. Bauer, Stefan Becker and Alena Kern (University of Speyer, Germany)

Strengthening the Executive? Assessing the Institutional Impact of the Crisis
Aron Buzogany (German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer, Germany)

Was European Integration Nice While It Lasted?
Miroslav Jovanovi? (Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva, Switzerland)

Beggars Can't Be Choosers: The European Crisis and Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in the European Union
Sophie Meunier (Princeton University, USA)

Changing EU Leadership in Environmental Politics: Exploring the Effects of the Crisis
Adam Fagan (Queen Mary University London, UK) and Kai Schulze (University of Mannheim, Germany)

Crisis and Trust in National and European Union Institutions-Panel Evidence for the EU, 1999 to 2012
Felix Roth (CEPS, Belgium and University of Göttingen, Germany)

The Eurozone Crisis and Public Attitudes towards the European Union in Greece
Ben Clements (University of Leicester, UK), Kyriaki Nanou (University of Nottingham, UK), Susannah Verney (University of Athens, Greece)

Politicizing Europe in Hard Times: National Election Campaigns in Britain, France and Germany
Swen Hutter (European University Institute, Italy) and Alena Kerscher (University of Munich, Germany)